Saturday, October 7, 2006

THE MOSQUITO Guardian: "Howard Stapleton today receives the 2006 Ig Nobel award for peace, joining a prestigious group of previous British winners of prizes that are becoming nearly as coveted their more high-minded Nobel cousins. For Mr Stapleton, of Compound Security Systems in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, the accolade came for his electronic teenager repellant, called the Mosquito. Tests of the £580 unit at a local Spar shop in Barry, south Wales, last year were declared a success when teenagers that congregated outside the premises pleaded with the owner, Robert Gough, to turn it off. Older customers were reported to be oblivious to the high-pitched shriek. The box, mounted on a wall outside the shop, was programmed to emit an 80-decibel pulse of high frequency sound that cleared an area up to 15 metres away." 11:29:52 AM

OKAY, SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Click the thumbnail for an explanation of 'Okay, so what are you gonna do about it?' Whatever can go wrong, is going wrong and the bastard in the White House is letting or making it all happen. I am just reading Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith. Here's an extract: "Angus made his way over to his table, sat down, and opened the newspaper. The news, he noticed, was uniformly grim, with seemingly endless vistas of conflict opening up in every corner of the world. It was always thus, he reflected: the struggle for resources, the struggle for space, the struggle for primacy. And as we grew in numbers, remorselessly straining the earth's capacity to sustain us, so the levels of conflict rose. 'Bad news, Cyril,' he said. 'Look at this, boy. Bad news for us; bad news for dogs. We're in it together, I'm afraid." Indeed, and suddenly, reading a book by Wodehouse seems so ridiculous, so far removed from the hustle and bustle of normal life that it feels like dope. Okay, so what are you going to do about it? The more things are going wrong the more power der Führer in the White House is amassing and the more things are going wrong. BostonGlobe: "President Bush's frequent use of signing statements to assert that he has the power to disobey newly enacted laws is 'an integral part' of his 'comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power' at the expense of the legislative branch, according to a report by the non partisan Congressional Research Service. Last week, for example, Bush signed the 2007 military budget bill, but then issued a statement challenging 16 of its provisions. Bush has used signing statements to challenge more than 800 laws that place limits or requirements on the executive branch, saying they intrude on his constitutional powers." Azstarnet: "President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department's reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists." What does he do with all that power? Prevent a normal administration of the country, wreak havoc, start wars and rob the poor and middle classes. AlterNet: "Journalists finally got their hands on the no-fly list, and it reveals colossal government incompetence in the name of protecting air passengers. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been confused with terrorists. These passengers have been questioned, searched, and even detained by authorities. Peace activists and other Bush administration critics have also been grounded." CommonDreams: "A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday." With all that power, Bush could do something about pollution, could he? He could, but he won't. CommonDreams: "Rising tides of untreated sewage and plastic debris are seriously threatening marine life and habitat around the globe, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned in a report Wednesday. The number of ocean 'dead zones' has grown from 150 in 2004 to about 200 today, said Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesperson." Thank God for those people who are able to wrench themselves free from their Wodehouse volume for a moment and do something sensible. TheRegister: "A privacy group is suing the US Government for information about surveillance programmes after the FBI failed to respond to a freedom of information request." CommonDreams: "Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape in front of the White House on Thursday amid a nationwide day of protest against the president." 11:26:39 AM

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